1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing history data, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for managing history data of messages received from and transmitted to other users by a user of a mobile communication device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many mobile phones are capable of transmitting and receiving messages such as SMS (Short Messages Service), MMS (Multimedia Message Service), and USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data). The use of such messages is increasing.
Messages received and transmitted by a mobile phone are generally stored in chronological order in a message deposit box having a received message box and a transmitted message box, respectively. A user may separately view messages received and messages transmitted utilizing the received message box and the transmitted message box.
However, if a user desires to view the messages transmitted to or received from a specific other user, all messages in the received message box or the transmitted message box must be viewed. Viewing all received messages or transmitted messages in order to find the messages from the specific other user that a user desires to view is considerably troublesome and the user wastes time indexing through messages transmitted to or received from other users that it is not desired to view.
A method of classifying, viewing and erasing messages in accordance with search criteria input by a user is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 2003-0032584, which was filed on Oct. 18, 2001 and assigned to the present applicant. Although a method for classifying the messages in accordance with the user's request is disclosed, the method does not adequately allow classification of transmitted messages and received messages such that messages transmitted to or received from a specific other user may be easily viewed.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for classifying, viewing and erasing messages in accordance with search criteria input by a user that facilitates a user easily viewing messages transmitted to or received from a specific other user. The present invention addresses these and other needs.